Xue Yang: A Tragic Study In How Not To Empathy - Hamliet

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4 Mar 2019 Xue Yang: A Tragic Study in How Not to Empathy

Or really, the two-way nature of empathy and importance of communication, in which Xue Yang gets an F.

Me: I’ll wait until the donghua’s second season to write on Yi City so I can use gifs.
Me five seconds later: I have major Yi City feels, too bad.

So let’s talk Xue Yang, who at first glance seems the series’ most repugnant character morally (besides perhaps Jin GuangShan). And yet he’s such a direct contrast to Wei WuXian, Jin GuangYao, and Jiang Cheng that on further reads I was struck by how desperate and sad his life was. Not that any of it excuses him, but his motives were not simply “evil for evil’s sake.” As we learn later on, pretty much no one in MDZ (and irl) is evil for evil’s sake, but Xue Yang is absolutely one of the more… chaotic and petty ones. That being said, Xue Yang’s actual motivations were not remotely petty at all.

(art here & elsewhere in this meta is official art from the audio drama; quotes are from the novel’s translation by exiledrebelsscans)

Let’s discuss Xue Yang in contrast to the other three characters from the Yi City Arc: A-Qing, Xiao XingChen, and Song Lan. All of these characters foil each other, but the most blatant similarities were between Xue Yang and A-Qing, two characters who professed to hate each other.

Both A-Qing and Xue Yang, early on in their introductions, fake blindness to garner people’s sympathy. Xue Yang pretends to be Xiao XingChen to Wei WuXian and the juniors; A-Qing is looking to steal money by stumbling into them under the guise of not being able to see. They both have unusual traits that save their lives: Xue Yang is uniquely talented and intelligent, and A-Qing has white pupils. And they both use their traits for, well, not ideally moralistic uses.

However, we know right away that A-Qing is a teenager trying to survive in the world. She’s poor, and doesn’t have a family. Xue Yang, we’re later told, comes from a similar background: a poor boy trying to find a way to survive. She uses similar logic at the beginning to what Xue Yang will later use to justify an atrocity: he hurt me, why can’t I hurt him back?

For A-Qing:

A-Qing leaped up three inches high, “He touched me! He pinched my butt, and it hurt so much, so what’s wrong with me taking some of his money? There’s only so little inside of such a big pouch, and he’s being a bully about it. He’s gonna die flat broke!”
Wei WuXian disagreed, You clearly had stealing intentions and bumped into him first, but now you’re saying it like he wronged you first. What a fraud argument.

For Xue Yang:

“…the wheels of the cart ground over the child’s hand, one finger at a time.”
Xiao XingChen couldn’t see, but Xue Yang raised his left hand at him anyway, “He was seven! The bones of his left hand were crushed, while one finger was ground into battered flesh on the spot! This man was Chang Ping’s father.
“…The YueyangChang Clan was only reaping what it had sown!”

I’m not attempting to morally compare A-Qing and Xue Yang, not at all, but instead to point out that their logic begins somewhere, and it’s in a similar vein at the beginning. The difference is A-Qing grows; Xue Yang spirals. It’s a highly childish form of logic they use–and A-Qing is seventeen, despite acting much, much younger. The story is encouraging us to see Xue Yang in A-Qing, a child hardened by the world who still desperately chases after connection; however, Xue Yang is older and more hardened by this point.

And the particular connection they both pursue is in Xiao XingChen. A-Qing continues to fake her blindness so that she can stay close to him. Xue Yang keeps his identity (and thereby his past with Xiao XingChen) a secret as well, so that he can stay with Xiao XingChen.

Although A-Qing was afraid, she couldn’t hide the truth any longer. She apologized and apologized, “I’m sorry, Daozhang! I didn’t lie to you on purpose! I was scared that if you knew that I’m not blind, you’d chase me away! But please don’t blame me for now. Let’s run away together. He’ll be back after he finishes shopping for food!”

Xue Yang had no way of knowing Song Lan would return someday and set in motion events that would reveal his identity–in fact, he pretty clearly did not know. As he tells Song Lan:

To be fair, the reason why I wiped out your temple was precisely because of him. It’s quite understandable why you took it out on him. In fact, it was exactly what I wanted… Well! Who was the one who said ‘from now on, we won’t need to meet again?’ Wasn’t it you, Daozhang Song? He listened to your request and disappeared after he dug out his eyes for you, but why have you come to him now? Isn’t this making it a bit too difficult?

What Song Lan said to Xiao XingChen–to never see him again, essentially to leave–was the exact opposite of what he wanted. I mean he then spends years searching for the friend who dug out his eyes for him. The reason he did so is completely understandable: it was the heat of the moment, he’d just lost his eyes, the temple he grew up in had been wiped out, and he said something he regretted (and which ties into MDZS’s theme of watching what you say). He was in pain, and he lashed out.

And we later see that Xue Yang, too, is in pain and lashing out, albeit in a waaaaay more extreme way. But if Xue Yang stayed with Xiao XingChen all those years just to get revenge on him by making him kill innocents, then why did he never reveal it until he had no choice? He probably didn’t just want to hurt Xiao XingChen, and he even notes that “recently, we haven’t went out at night to kill walking corpses, have we? But, a few years ago, didn’t we go outside and kill a bunch every couple of days?”

What he really wanted from Xiao XingChen he blatantly tells him in their last confrontation, when it’s too late for any of them:

“…Who was right, who was wrong; would an outsider be able to understand? Or, maybe you shouldn’t have even left the mountain in the first place. Your teacher, BaoShan SanRen, was indeed smart. Why didn’t you listen to her and obediently cultivate in the mountains? If you couldn’t understand the happenings of this world, then you shouldn’t have come!”
It was more than Xiao XingChen could bear, “… Xue Yang, you really are… too disgusting…”
Hearing this, the killing intent that hadn’t flashed through Xue Yang’s eyes for quite a long while had appeared again.
He laughed bitterly, “Xiao XingChen, this is why I hate you. The people that I hate the most are ones like you who say they’re righteous, who think they’re virtuous, precisely stupid, naive, dumb idiots like you who think the world’s better just because you did something good! You think I’m disgusting? Very well. Would I care if anybody thinks I’m disgusting? But, on the other hand, are you in a position to be disgusted by me?”
Xiao XingChen paused slightly, “What do you mean?”
…
Xiao XingChen’s lips moved, as though he was feeling somewhat uneasy, “Why are you bringing this up now?”
Xue Yang, “Nothing, really. It’s just really unfortunate that you’re blind. You dug out both of your eyes, so you couldn’t see those ‘walking corpses’ that you killed. They were so scared, so pained when you pierced them through the heart. Some even kneeled down and cried and kowtowed for you to let off the young and elderly of their families. If not for how I cut off all of their tongues, I bet they would’ve been wailing and shouting ‘Daozhang, spare us’.”
Xiao XingChen’s entire body started to tremble.

Even when Xue Yang was looking for revenge on Xiao XingChen, he was doing it to try and force Xiao XingChen to understand where he was coming from, to understand him, to empathize with him instead of judging him.

And this is where Xue Yang makes a fatal error. His inability to connect with people is because of himself, not because of them. To be honest with Xiao XingChen earlier would have required a vulnerability and a trust that Xue Yang simply did not have. He did not want to be the little boy desperately looking for his pastries again, the boy who lost a finger for two adults’ petty grudge.

“The child saw the man who fooled him to take the letter. He felt both frustrated and happy. He threw himself to the man as he cried, and said to him, ‘I brought the letter there, but the pastries are gone and I was beaten up. Can you give me another plate?’

And because of his inability to trust Xiao XingChen, he drives him away forever and shatters the man who did show him genuine kindness, tricking him into killing Song Lan so that Xiao XingChen will feel just as alone as Xue Yang feels. And then Xue Yang literally disguises himself as Xiao XingChen, trying to become him in a sense.

Following the limpid echo of the sword tumbling to the ground, both Xue Yang’s movement and laughter halted.
After a while of silence, he walked to Xiao XingChen’s motionless corpse. He looked down with bloodshot eyes, the twisted curvature of his lips gradually sinking. Wei WuXian didn’t know if he had accidentally saw wrong, but it seemed that the rim of Xue Yang’s eyes were brimming a reddish tint.

And Xue Yang then spends eight years trying to figure out a way to mend Xiao XingChen’s soul, supposedly so he can control him, but really also so that he won’t be alone. He tries everything to revive Xiao XingChen’s soul.

After he smashed everything the house, he calmed down again. He squatted where he had been and called out in a small voice, “Xiao XingChen.”
He continued, “If you don’t get up, I’ll make your dear friend Song Lan murder people.
“I’ll kill off everyone in the entire Yi City and make them into living corpses. You’ve been living here for such a long time. Is it really okay for you not to care?
“I’ll strangle that little blind A-Qing and leave her corpse in the fields for wild dogs to gobble her up.”
A-Qing shivered soundlessly.
Having received no reply, Xue Yang suddenly shouted out of rage, “Xiao XingChen!”
He yanked at Xiao XingChen’s collars, even though it did nothing, and shook it a couple of times as he stared at the lifeless face in his hands.
Suddenly, pulling Xiao XingChen’s arm, he lifted him onto his back.
Xue Yang carried the corpse toward the door. As if he had lost his mind, he ranted in a whisper, “Spirit-trapping Pouch, Spirit-trapping Pouch. Right, a Spirit-trapping Pouch. I need a Spirit-trapping Pouch, a Spirit-trapping Pouch, a Spirit-trapping Pouch…”

Xue Yang desperately wanted to not be alone (which Wei WuXian identifies as his own chief fear to Lan WangJi, and the need to connect is an important theme in the novel), but his complete inability to take responsibility stopped him from ever forming an honest connection that could lead to some kind of redemption. As he accuses Xiao XingChen’s dead body: “You forced me to do this!”

But it’s not true. Xue Yang did have choices, and A-Qing shows us this in that she told Xiao XingChen her secrets to try and save his life. But more than that, as we’ll later see with Wei WuXian and Jin GuangYao’s stories–what choices we have are in part gifted to us by society, and there are things out of our control. Was someone like Xue Yang who never received any kind of justice to respect justice? (Jin GuangYao is a distinct parallel here.) Was someone whose immense talent was the only reason he achieved any kind of recognition in society, the only thing that the Jin Sect saved his life for, the only thing that kept him from being another useless street vagabond, supposed to understand that he could rely on others for worth and justice instead of feeling like he had to do it all himself? (Jiang Cheng is a loose parallel here.) Was he supposed to understand that there was a way back, a way to redemption, when no one offered him one? (Wei WuXian is a parallel here.)

But there was, and these other three parallels–Jin GuangYao, Wei WuXian, Jiang Cheng–all find it to a varying degree, as does A-Qing.

Empathy.

Literally it’s the name of the technique Wei WuXian uses to get the truth from A-Qing. What Xue Yang was looking for was true empathy, but he did not extend that empathy to others except in ways that weaponized their best traits against them (Nie HuaiSang is a parallel here in the weaponizing best traits aspect). And that was his tragedy, and the reason he dies unredeemed after killing Song Lan and A-Qing and essentially Xiao XingChen–killing parts of himself, really.

Anyways I love all four of these characters and can’t wait to see them animated.